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For Autodesk, a Step Into a Nanoscale World“Project Cyborg” offers services like molecular modeling and simulation. Autodesk, a quirky software start-up in Marin County, north of San Francisco, rose to prominence in the early 1980s because of AutoCAD, its computer-aided design program that was intended for use on personal computers. Over the next decade, AutoCAD became the standard design tool for architects and engineers. This week at the TED conference in Long Beach, Calif., the company will take the first public step toward translating its computer design approach, which has since spilled over from Hollywood to the Maker movement, into the emerging nanoscale world of synthetic biology and materials. For the last two years, a small group of software engineers and molecular biologists have been developing a software system for designing at the molecular level at the company’s research laboratory in downtown San Francisco. The company has quietly begun working with a small group of molecular biologists in the last year.

dentsu: paint sound sculpturesoct 06, 2010 dentsu: paint sound sculptures the creative studio dentsu, teamed up with photographer linden gledhill to create this series of paint sculptures using sound vibrations. the series was part of a campaign for canon’s pixma ink printer brand. the photographs and videos begin by wrapping a membrane around a small speaker. ink drops were placed on this membrane and the speaker was turned on. once it began to vibrate the ink begins to jump up and down. high-speed video cameras and still cameras were used to capture this including circling around the sculptures to see them from all angles. experimenting with different sounds and frequencies created the various pieces. nate archer I designboomGaui x7Stanford University Researchers Make Complex Carbon Nanotube CircuitsResearchers at Stanford University have built one of the most complex circuits from carbon nanotubes yet. They showed off a simple hand-shaking robot with a sensor-interface circuit last week at the International Solid-State Circuits Conference in San Francisco. As the silicon transistors inside today’s computers reach their physical limits, the semiconductor industry is eyeing alternatives, and one of the most promising is carbon nanotubes. Tiny transistors made from these nanomaterials are faster and more energy efficient than silicon ones, and computer models predict that carbon nanotube processors could be an order of magnitude less power hungry. But it’s proved difficult to turn individual transistors into complex working circuits (see “How to Build a Nano-Computer”). The demonstration carbon nanotube circuit converts an analog signal from a capacitor—the same type of sensor found in many touch screens—into a digital signal that’s comprehensible by a microprocessor.

Creators - Dedicated to inspiring designers, inventors & the creative spirit in all of us.August 22, 2013 Artist’s Work Paints a Beautiful Picture Animations Tyrus Wong, a 102-year-old artist’s work influenced the visual direction of Bambi in 1941. An exhibition at the Walt Disney Family Museum in San Francisco will be held to celebrate Wong’s work. According to the Disney Museum site, the drawings felt different from what is commonly known for Disney animation and this is what caught Walt Disney’s eye. Copyright Davison 2013 Sources: August 20, 2013 Hope “Floats” for those with Carpal Tunnel Product Innovation This levitating wireless computer mouse was invented by Vadim Kibardin of Kibardin Design, in order to help prevent and treat the contemporary disease, carpal tunnel syndrome. The levitating mouse consists of a mouse pad base and a floating mouse with a magnet ring. Source: August 15, 2013 Pin It

Proof That Science Is SorceryZinc Oxide Nanowires Transistors Can Be Sophisticated Pressure SensorsArrays of transistors made of nanowires could form the basis of a new class of devices nearly as sensitive to mechanical force as human skin is, according to research published today in Science. The inventor of the technology, Zhong Lin Wang, a professor of materials science and engineering at Georgia Tech, says it has immediate applications in human-machine interfaces. For example, it could be used to capture electronic signatures by recording the distinctive force an individual applies while signing. Down the road, says Wang, his group’s pressure sensor arrays could equip robotics and prosthetics with a human-like sense of touch. Electronically replicating the sensitivity of the human sense of touch has proved extremely challenging. Recently, some research groups have demonstrated that micro- or nanoelectronics assembled on flexible, bendable substrates could monitor pressure changes at a fairly high level of detail and thus could potentially act as a kind of “artificial skin.”

MIT Creates Amazing UI From Levitating OrbsAnyone else see The Avengers? Just like in Iron Man 1 and 2, Tony Stark has the coolest interactive 3-D displays. He can pull a digital wire frame out of a set of blueprints or wrap an exoskeleton around his arm. Jinha Lee, from the Tangible Media Group of the MIT Media Lab, in collaboration with Rehmi Post and Hiroshi Ishii, has been playing with the idea of manipulating real floating objects in 3-D space to create a truly tactile user interface. It’s essentially a small field in which gravity doesn’t overcome an object. “There is something fundamental behind motivations to liberate physical matter from gravity and enable control. Interviewing Lee, I realized he’s one-part scientist, one-part philosopher. Whereas we are captivated by this empty pocket of air, Lee has hidden the real magic just above where there’s a 3-D actuator housing an electromagnet. It looks like magic, but it’s largely a mechanical process, powered by a robot in a box holding one of the world’s smartest magnets.

Hamilton Scotts, En-suite Sky Garage SingaporeSolar cell, heal thyselfPlants are good at doing what scientists and engineers have been struggling to do for decades: converting sunlight into stored energy, and doing so reliably day after day, year after year. Now some MIT scientists have succeeded in mimicking a key aspect of that process. One of the problems with harvesting sunlight is that the sun’s rays can be highly destructive to many materials. That process has now been imitated by Michael Strano, the Charles and Hilda Roddey Associate Professor of Chemical Engineering, and his team of graduate students and researchers. Strano says the idea first occurred to him when he was reading about plant biology. One of Strano’s long-term research goals has been to find ways to imitate principles found in nature using nanocomponents. This action all takes place inside tiny capsules called chloroplasts that reside inside every plant cell — and which is where photosynthesis happens.

How Do You Create A Culture Of Innovation?This is the third part in a series by Scott Anthony, author of The Little Black Book Of Innovation. It sounds so seductive: a “culture of innovation.” The three words immediately conjure up images of innovation savants like 3M, Pixar, Apple, and Google--the sorts of places where innovation isn’t an unnatural act, but part of the very fabric of a company. It seems a panacea to many companies that struggle with innovation. But what exactly is a culture of innovation, and how does a company build it? While culture is a complicated cocktail, four ingredients propel an organization forward: the right people, appropriate rewards and incentives, a common language, and leadership role-modeling. The Innovator’s DNA Has Four Components If you ask most people what makes a great innovator, the most common response is innate gifts from parents or a higher power. At the core is what the professors call “associational thinking.” Questioning: Asking probing questions that impose or remove constraints.

AIREAL: Interactive Tactile Experiences in Free AirScientists make "Impossible Material" ... by accidentIn an effort to create a more viable material for drug delivery, a team of researchers has accidentally created an entirely new material thought for more than 100 years to be impossible to make. Upsalite is a new form of non-toxic magnesium carbonate with an extremely porous surface area which allows it to absorb more moisture at low humidities than any other known material. "The total area of the pore walls of one gram of material would cover 800 square meters (8611 sq ft) if you would 'roll them out'", Maria Strømme, Professor of Nanotechnology at the Uppsala University, Sweden tells Gizmag. That's roughly equal to the sail area of a megayacht. Scientists have long puzzled over this particular form of magnesium carbonate since it doesn't normally occur in nature and has defied synthesis in laboratories. The breakthrough came when they tweaked the process a little and accidentally left the material in the reaction chamber over a weekend. Source: Disruptive Materials